The NBR Ol' G Thread

[Samir]

So I'm on a lot of communities so long that I'm considered an 'Old G' aka 'Old Gangster' aka 'Original Gangster'.  Since there's so many people coming here from the legacy site, it's time for you to post your Old G status!

It's simple, post your legacy NBR user name and join date/year if you have it.  Or some rough idea of when you registered your username.

Me first, but I was pretty new so not so much an 'Old G':

SamirD 2018 (I think)

Your turn!

[Aaron44126]

Captured an hour or two before the site went down.

[Custom90gt]

[toastofman]

Same username, but I wasn't a frequent poster.  I registered to get some questions resolved about my old M6400 way back in 2014 I think, maybe later.  There was just too much to read through, I found that if I searched correctly the site could answer almost any question I had.

[Jarhead]

Not quite since the beginning, but pretty far back.

 

[Reciever]

TheReciever which was kindly changed to Reciever by @Charles P. Jefferies

Registered in 2012, started posting regularly I believe in 2015/2016 after I ditched OCN. 

 

[Ag76]

Ag76, joined February 19, 2007.

[Sandy Bridge]

Originally, Apollo13, joined May 2007.  Don't remember what my post total was, but pretty sure it was in the 4 digits.  Fairly active until probably end of 2012, beginning of 2013.  Intentionally made my password hard to access so I'd quit spending so much time replying to posts.  Eventually lost the password.

Re-joined with my current username probably 2018 or so... which was also the year I bought my new laptop, so that makes sense.  Couldn't find my old password, and the e-mail it was associated with had went defunct.  Oh well.

[Samir]

19 hours ago, Sandy Bridge said:

Couldn't find my old password, and the e-mail it was associated with had went defunct.  Oh well.

Bummer--this is when you contact the admin as they can put in your new email and then send you an activation email.  I had to do this for a few of my users when they wanted to change the email associated with their user name.

[Nick]

Makes me feel old. 

 

[Samir]

Remember, if you feel old someone else still remembers years far before you were born. 🙂  Now, when you can't find anyone that can, then you are old, lol.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Samir
grammar

[Jarhead]

Have already experienced that in various online communities. Plenty of people online now and even adults now that never got to experience a pre-9/11 world, for example. Or a pre-smartphone world. It's weird to think about.

[Nick]

I tutored classes as a side job in grad school. One freshman I tutored was born in 2001. Made me feel really old, as I remember watching the twin towers burn and collapse on TV. 

[Reciever]

27 minutes ago, Nick said:

I tutored classes as a side job in grad school. One freshman I tutored was born in 2001. Made me feel really old, as I remember watching the twin towers burn and collapse on TV. 

I remember the day of, went to school but at a certain part of the day there were no more lessons.

I do remember the next day a lot of people stayed home, my mother at the time, told me that unless there were mushroom clouds just as sure as the sun rise each day I would be at school.

[Samir]

I was on a road trip with a friend and we were in Austin, TX as someone's house we were at when 9-11 happened.  I actually had to fly from LA back home after that trip was done and we had to line up outside the airport to go through security.  Very weird times.

I remember where I was the day Michael Jackson died.  I was at a vinyl wrapping company working out a deal for a Transformers 2 promo I was working on.

It's interesting how events in history affect our own personal history.

[electrosoft]

Same name and joined NBR August 2008 seeking answers for my Alienware mALX at the time.

Here's to hoping this site (still wondering what the final name is going to be) has equal longevity!

 

 

[Jarhead]

19 hours ago, Reciever said:

I remember the day of, went to school but at a certain part of the day there were no more lessons.

I do remember the next day a lot of people stayed home, my mother at the time, told me that unless there were mushroom clouds just as sure as the sun rise each day I would be at school.

 

7 hours ago, Samir said:

I was on a road trip with a friend and we were in Austin, TX as someone's house we were at when 9-11 happened.  I actually had to fly from LA back home after that trip was done and we had to line up outside the airport to go through security.  Very weird times.

I remember where I was the day Michael Jackson died.  I was at a vinyl wrapping company working out a deal for a Transformers 2 promo I was working on.

It's interesting how events in history affect our own personal history.

Was in class at the time, PA system and teachers told us to stop and go home. Did, got home, saw the reruns with my parents. Was some surreal crap for a child.

 

Just used that an an example historical watershed event, but really any of the other major happenings at the time could mark that difference between us somewhat "older" folk and those just recently (<20 years) born. Or hell, even certain sayings / teachings that no longer are applicable these days; anyone else had math teachers that told you that "you won't always have a calculator with you!" or parents that warned you about "stranger danger" both on/offline?

[Samir]

5 hours ago, Jarhead said:

...anyone else had math teachers that told you that "you won't always have a calculator with you!" or parents that warned you about "stranger danger" both on/offline?

Oh, I forgot I remembered the day the shuttle challenger exploded.  I was home because I was sick and I was playing with my hot wheels crash ups and had just hit two together and then saw an explosion on the tv.  I was alone in my room and was confused for a long time because it didn't match the reality of other shuttle launches.

The next day in school the jokes started:

"What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes?  Blew--one blew this way and one blew that way"

"What does NASA stand for?  Need Another Seven Astronauts"

3rd graders were really mean!

And I remember that no calculators were allowed until trigonometry and were only allowed on homework, not tests.  Yep, there was a lot of stuff about 'strangers' still being taught.

[Sandy Bridge]

I think the real cultural differentiator is those who grew up without, and with always-accessible information in their pockets.  Yes, it's 2022, so 2000 is a good dividing line for being obviously young if your year or birth starts with 2 instead of 1.  But I suspect the real difference is when phones, and especially smartphones, started becoming ubiquitous at younger and younger ages.  I don't know exactly when that happened; it was after I graduated high school by a few years, but by less than a decade.

Now you do have a calculator with you all the time so you don't need to know math, GPS navigation so you don't have to know how to actually navigate, Google so you don't need to memorize any facts, social networks and video chats as a poor but easy substitute for in person interaction.  And perhaps most of all, a great source of distraction in the Internet - both in being able to scroll mindlessly, and if you aren't careful, get notifications constantly.

Not that being old enough to remember the time before that necessarily innoculates one against it, but it made math class both more practical and less prone to distractions.

The other differentiator I see, probably more specific to the U.S., is those who graduated high school before and after the start of the Great Recession.  I see a lot more economic fatalism among the latter.  Thoughts of never paying off student loans unless the government does, for example.  What's interesting is the change seems to be those graduating high school, not college - those who graduated college directly into the Great Recession seem to have a more pre-Recession mindset of the economy has ups and downs, they had bad luck with hitting a down but things will improve.  Maybe it's just the difference in messaging that people heard when they moved out on their own and became adults - if you graduated high school in 2005, the message was life is good, and that carried through even when you graduated college in 2009, whereas if you graduated high school in 2009, the message was the economy stinks, and perhaps it did for long enough for that message to sink in.

It certainly isn't universal, but IMO the Great Recession did have an impact on the cultural psyche.  Which probably shouldn't be surprising; the Great Depression certainly did, but again more so on those who were more affected by it.

Pre-9/11 world... that's one I didn't experience as an adult, but aside from the obvious air travel, and the eventual Vietnam-like impact on the American political psyche from the resulting overseas adventures, I wonder if it really made that big of an impact?  Or maybe it doesn't look as big to me because I never worked/lived in an area with big skyscrapers until 15 years later, by which point the concern had died down.

I mean, sure, I remember the events of the day (although our school continued with the regularly planned lessons) and the TV news that evening, but I'm not sure it had a major impact on "people who grew up before vs after".  A milestone, yes, but on the scale of, say, Vietnam or Watergate?

[Samir]

Really great points--you've made me think of and remember things I haven't in a long time. :)

 

So for the smartphone revolution--I'd say 2004 because I remember that's when I first launched my site and I was happy that I could use it on my phone even though most people didn't have a full browser on their phone yet.  I had a Treo 650.  Still have it actually.  It's an awesome pda as well.

 

And you highlighted the detrimental use of a smartphone very well.  I never put all those things together, but it all makes sense.  It also explains why when a phone battery dies, people panic so much, lol.

 

Interesting to hear the perspectives on going through the Great Recession.  I did a research paper on the Great Depression but never put the two together before.  Great critical thinking!

 

Ah, pre 9-11.  Well, the biggest thing was that you walked all the way into the airport all the way to the gate and hung around with your family as long as you wanted to, even after the plane left.  You literally could just 'hang out' at the airport like the mall--and it explains why a lot of airports still have stores in them like malls.  All of that changed with 9-11.  That and racism, racism made a comeback after 9-11, and it's unfortunately still going strong.

[Jarhead]

1 hour ago, Sandy Bridge said:

Pre-9/11 world... that's one I didn't experience as an adult, but aside from the obvious air travel, and the eventual Vietnam-like impact on the American political psyche from the resulting overseas adventures, I wonder if it really made that big of an impact?  Or maybe it doesn't look as big to me because I never worked/lived in an area with big skyscrapers until 15 years later, by which point the concern had died down.

I mean, sure, I remember the events of the day (although our school continued with the regularly planned lessons) and the TV news that evening, but I'm not sure it had a major impact on "people who grew up before vs after".  A milestone, yes, but on the scale of, say, Vietnam or Watergate?

 

It absolutely did, at least in the States. The details of which would require a dive into the political, which I'm not entirely sure how efgxt wishes to handle that as compared to NBR, thus I'll just leave it at that.

[Reciever]

2 hours ago, Jarhead said:

 

It absolutely did, at least in the States. The details of which would require a dive into the political, which I'm not entirely sure how efgxt wishes to handle that as compared to NBR, thus I'll just leave it at that.

Lets try to keep it similar to NBR. That being said if you want to engage in that discussion in a PM that is perfectly fine. 

[TheRealTechGeek]

I am so very happy to be part of this community again, I used to be known as Freedom16 a decade ago and I actually forget my second account name. The moderators banned me twice. Freaking ridiculous, over very petty stuff, It really jaded me so much regarding joining other forums. In many ways the end of that forum is the end of the abusive horrible moderators. They truly were such jerks. Reminiscing now I remember so many people used to complain about Asus so much. I had Asus and Alienware at the time in 2010. I met so many great people from the forum. It's great to be back. 

[Samir]

5 hours ago, TheRealTechGeek said:

I am so very happy to be part of this community again, I used to be known as Freedom16 a decade ago and I actually forget my second account name. The moderators banned me twice. Freaking ridiculous, over very petty stuff, It really jaded me so much regarding joining other forums. In many ways the end of that forum is the end of the abusive horrible moderators. They truly were such jerks. Reminiscing now I remember so many people used to complain about Asus so much. I had Asus and Alienware at the time in 2010. I met so many great people from the forum. It's great to be back. 

Welcome!  Some of the old NBR mods are here as mere users so you may recognize someone.

[TheRealTechGeek]

3 hours ago, Samir said:

Welcome!  Some of the old NBR mods are here as mere users so you may recognize someone

Ok cool I'll probably will. Thanks for the welcome